Problem Statement
Contributing to Cardano GovTool is blocked by incomplete Kubernetes documentation. Developers face cryptic errors (missing secrets, wrong config formats, CrashLoopBackOff) with no clear resolution path, preventing community contributions to critical CIP-1694 governance infrastructure.
Solution Delivered
Comprehensive deployment automation and testing suite for GovTool on Minikube:
1. Automated Testing Suite
- 50+ tests validating infrastructure, secrets, pods, services, and configuration
- Organized sections pinpoint exact failure points
- Verifies TLS setup, ingress configuration, database connectivity
2. Deployment Scripts
start-govtool.sh: One-command cluster initialization
3. Documentation
- Step-by-step secret creation process
- Service-specific configuration formats (discovered via reverse-engineering values.yaml)
- Troubleshooting guide for common pod failures
Impact
- Hours to minutes: Setup time reduced from manual debugging to automated validation
- Self-service: Tests provide actionable error messages, reducing maintainer burden
- Reproducible: Scripts capture tribal knowledge about backend schema requirements (dbsyncconfig vs db), Strapi database settings, etc.
Funding Request
TBD
